Not sure how much own-thread mileage there might be in a thread like this, but I thought it worth starting if only to highlight a gigantic problem within the controlling Labour hierarchy, that goes well beyond Jeremy Corbyn's familiar ham-fisted incompetence and should be a matter of great concern for anyone with serious concerns about Labour's direction and its future as a party of government.

Seumas Milne is Jeremy Corbyn's Head of Strategy & Communications. A sort of even-more-evil Alastair Campbell, if you will (though personally I have a great deal of time for Alastair). As a pupil at Winchester College, Milne stood in a mock election in 1974 as a Maoist Party candidate, though his views can now be characterised as those of a "tankie" or Stalinist.
Perhaps best to read Milne's Wikipedia entry for more detailed info on his background : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seumas_Milne

Karie Murphy is Jeremy Corbyn's Chief of Staff. Corbyn's gatekeeper and enforcer, she is notorious for taking no prisoners. Murphy is closely associated personally with Len McCluskey, the General Secretary of Unite the Union and another key supporter of the Corbyn project.

By November 2016, Murray had joined the Labour Party and, in May 2017, it emerged that he had been seconded from Unite to Labour headquarters during the 2017 general election. The appointment was contentious because of Murray's previous leadership role within the Communist Party of Britain, and was described by one Labour Party source to The Huffington Post as "Corbyn's Labour has gone full Trump. Andrew Murray is the hard-left's Steve Bannon". Asked by journalists about the appointment, Corbyn said Murray "is a person of enormous abilities and professionalism" who possesses "special skills". Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell defended the decision saying "He has left the Communist Party, and joined Labour. We are converting people to democratic socialism."

Murray was quoted in The Guardian on the day after the election about the unexpected exit poll announced just after the polling stations had closed. "There was a tremendous moment of elation when the exit poll was announced because it became apparent that the campaign had achieved the most stunning turnaround in public opinion in seven weeks" which saw Labour rise "from mid 20s in the polls at the start of the campaign to denying the Tories a majority. It was a moment of shared achievement".[18] In a December 2017 interview with the Morning Star, Murray called for the readmission of George Galloway to the Labour Party.

In late February 2018, The Guardian reported that Murray was working 1½ days a week as a consultant to the Labour Party.]

In June 2018 Murray was banned from entering Ukraine for three years by the country's Security Service, which stated that he was "considered part of Putin’s global propagandist network, selling Russian lies, especially in relation to Crimea and the war in Ukraine’s east."

Murray's role in shaping and directing the thinking of both Corbyn and Milne should not be under-estimated.

Andrew Fisher, mentioned in the Standard article and the author of the 2017 manifesto, is less of a concern, in my view.

However, beyond any doubt, it is Seumas Milne, in my view, that is by far the biggest concern. For example he is ideologically absolutely committed to opposing the EU, and of course finds common cause with his boss on this. If you look up the relevant chapter of Tim Shipman's "All Out War", the account of the extent to which Milne colluded with Corbyn to throw serial spanners into the works of the Remain campaign would make your hair curl.

These people operate to some extent in the shadows, in the sense that the public face of Labour's shift to the extremes of the left of British politics is kindly Uncle Jez (something now losing its sheen). However, I think it is rather important to keep sight of them. Feel fee to use this thread to do so.

"The opportunity to serve our country. That is all we ask." John Smith, Leader of the Labour Party, 10 May 1994.

The party is now in the red partly due to their inept mismanagement on Jezfest and paid vanguard cadres under the title of community organisers or some such. The membership surge was a bonus for the coffers but eneviatable these clowns would spend it like kids in a sweet shop. Boris Johnson and Seamus Milne both live rarified bourgeois lifestyles so they’ll always be insulated from the consequences of their jolly jape lives in politics.

The RMT have made positive noises without reaffiliating. They don't need to, they're getting the rail policy they want anyway. If Labour gets short of funds, I suppose they might be brought on board. A bunch of Lexiters keen to avoid any competition, that's a proper template for a modern economy.

Another former shadow minister said: "This is nepotism writ large to allow the person who started this whole travesty for the Labour movement by trying to be parachuted into Falkirk, to now lead it. Can the party sink any lower?"

A Labour spokesperson said: "We do not comment on staffing matters."

The row comes just a day after Labour bosses were criticised for appointing Laura Murray, a former aide to Mr Corbyn, head of the party's complaints unit.

He is, say some of those who have been closely involved in the debate, implacably and ideologically opposed to the European Union and one of the main reasons the leadership is resisting all efforts by its Remain-leaning MPs and members to support a People's Vote more unequivocally.

For all his power and influence, though, Milne operates with a remarkably low profile. Where others in the role of director of strategy and communication would be on the phone constantly, phoning or messaging, and chasing every query from journalists, Milne habitually replies to what (or who) he likes and leaves the rest.

His unusual style goes further: while he continues to brief the lobby – often directly contradicting lines put out on major shows by shadow cabinet ministers – he never does so by name, and often even rejects being cited as a spokesman, choosing instead to present his statements behind the heavy cover of a “Labour source”.

But despite this low-profile approach, Labour MPs, members, and journalists close to the party alike say Milne has grown a huge influence over Labour at a time when it could be just months from government, installing him in a key role in Number 10.

The situation seems typical of a man who has built a career in a consummately British way: an establishment anti-establishmentarian, a man known for his charm yet bitterly divisive among colleagues, and a man who could be among the most influential in the country on what happens next over Brexit.

Milne's background could hardly be more comfortably establishment: he is the son of former BBC director-general and went to public school – Winchester College – before studying PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, where his radical politics had already emerged. Having begun as a Maoist, Milne's politics shifted towards Stalinism, where some of his detractors suggest they've largely stayed.